Professor Ratio let out a light breath.
"The sudden string of disappearances is undoubtedly the perfect breeding ground for chaos."
"Once the seeds of fear take root, they release their declaration of attack, dragging the crisis that has been quietly building into the open, forcing it to grow, bloom, and bear fruit."
"And the next step, snap, is to light the spark. Look at these missing researchers. If someone discovers what they all have in common, what do you think will happen? I don't need to explain."
The professor from the Intelligentsia Guild had laid everything out plainly. After hearing him, Asta couldn't help frowning with worry.
"So it was all a trap from the beginning. The goal was to stir up internal conflict in the space station!"
Ratio neither agreed nor disagreed. He simply said, "...Too late."
At the same time, part of the space station's employee group chat had already broken into arguments.
They seemed to have discovered what the missing people had in common and were now shouting for the management to step down.
"Th-This..."
Looking at those messages, Asta became even more upset.
Screwllum remained calm.
"...No, it's still not enough."
"That's true."
Nero nodded seriously as well.
"With so little going on, they're seriously looking down on my fans!"
The white-haired boy spoke with complete confidence. He seemed to have great faith in the people who liked him, even though they had only recently been researchers numbly repeating the same work every day.
Hearing that, Ratio, who had agreed with Screwllum, had to swallow the words that had reached his lips.
He had originally thought the child had reached the same conclusion as he and Screwllum.
Instead, he was simply dissatisfied because the enemy's methods were too weak...
Still, no matter where the child got such confidence in his "followers," the current situation really wasn't the ideal outcome.
He and Screwllum looked toward Asta at the same time.
Even now, Asta still had a chance to defend herself. A carefully planned scheme shouldn't have left her with even that slim opportunity.
Suddenly, blue flames burst from Asta's body!
"Eh?"
Asta jumped in fright.
"F-F-F-Fire..."
Even though they had expected it, seeing it happen so suddenly still caught them off guard.
However, phase transfer was incredibly fast. In just an instant, Asta disappeared.
"Stay calm. Asta has only been teleported away. Her life is not in danger."
Screwllum was the first to speak. The ruler of Planet Screwllum's eyes flickered slightly. He seemed to have figured out many things.
Not far away, Nero looked at the strand of wind circling around his fingertip.
Although he remembered that Dr. Ratio would handle this incident, just in case something unexpected happened, he had quietly given a little help at that moment.
For the current Nero, crossing space with his physical body wasn't difficult.
But an unprotected Asta was another matter.
So while that happened just now, he had wrapped the young lady in a thin layer of protection.
At the very least, it could block the cold and provide some oxygen.
If she tried hard enough, even if she were sent into outer space, she could float around for a while with that protective layer.
If she ended up near the space station, it wasn't impossible for her to swim back.
At that moment, Screwllum spoke again, "Through direct contact, I have confirmed that Ifrit's flames are only sparks from the Ever-Flame. They do not possess phase-shifting abilities. Conclusion: Asta is still somewhere inside the space station."
Ratio nodded.
"That flame must still be somewhere inside one of the station's sections. Find her, and we'll find a way to bring her back."
Just then, a voice echoed out of nowhere, "Heh. Just a little spark? The arrogance of geniuses is something I can appreciate."
Hearing the sudden voice, Nero frowned. He moved closer to Stelle, took her hand, stood on tiptoe, and whispered into her ear, "Is this Duke Inferno?"
Stelle blinked, leaned close to Nero's ear, and whispered back, "Sounds like him. Didn't I send you that video before? He's such an edgelord."
"I can tell."
Nero nodded.
Their whispered conversation didn't seem important to Duke Inferno. He continued provoking the two "adults" in front of him.
"If you can do it, then come and try."
Hearing those words, Ratio's eyelid twitched slightly.
If no one interfered, this guy's plan really could have had some effect.
But in Ratio's eyes, the terrible planning, laughable advance intelligence gathering, and awful handling of unexpected situations had all been complete failures.
Especially now.
Not only did he have no intention of adjusting his plan according to the new circumstances, he even had the confidence to show up and taunt them while stubbornly sticking to it.
He didn't even know...
He had no idea that someone had already changed the destination of the space transfer caused by the flame he had thrown.
Although Ratio had deliberately allowed this fellow's plan to develop in order to evaluate the space station, judging from the results, some people on the station deserved a passing grade, the rest deserved negative scores, and as for Duke Inferno...
Even though he wasn't one of the people being evaluated this time, a student like this should simply be expelled.
Poor ability.
Stubborn.
Arrogant and conceited...
From the perspective of a teacher, Professor Ratio had an extremely poor impression of Duke Inferno.
However, just because the proud professor looked down on him didn't mean Duke Inferno was weak.
As the leader of the Ever-Flame Mansion, he was still a terrifying existence to most living beings in the universe.
Ratio took a deep breath before speaking, "It seems Duke Inferno did not come here in person. He only took advantage of the chaos to send a flame here and let it roam around hunting researchers. Once the Inferno Flame is extinguished, his scheme will disappear with it."
Not far away, Nero frowned unhappily.
"This goat-head talked so confidently, and his real body isn't even here."
The moment he realized he couldn't catch the goat-head and send him to the factory, the disappointment on the boy's face became obvious.
"It's okay. Since he exists somewhere in this universe, we'll catch him sooner or later!"
Stelle comforted him, "You're right. I should ask someone for help."
Nero nodded before taking out his phone.
Seeing this, Screwllum and Ratio both felt somewhat conflicted.
No matter how much they understood, they both knew Nero was special.
So they also understood that the two in front of them weren't fearless because they were inexperienced.
They genuinely didn't see the fire demon as a "person."
Their attitude was as if they had already decided that the Ever-Flame Mansion were employees of Aha's Fragmentum Factory.
Thinking back to everything that had happened to Nero during the simulated Swarm Disaster test, the ruler of Planet Screwllum unexpectedly began to feel sympathy for Ifrit.
Professor Ratio also fell silent and observed a brief moment of silence for that unqualified "student."
He had already seen Nero's strength.
Even if Ruan Mei's replicated Starcrusher Swarm King wasn't as powerful as the original Emanator, the boy had still split an Emanator's replica in half in less than forty seconds.
That alone spoke for itself.
Besides, he also knew quite a bit about Aha's Fragmentum Factory.
Because of its huge and complicated network of connections, if this child asked for help, even the IPC might take action.
On top of that, he had heard the Xianzhou treated the boy very well.
The factory was even named directly after the Aeon of Elation.
And there was also his identity as an incarnation of the Fragment of Beauty.
'Good heavens...'
'Duke Inferno had actually caught the attention of someone like this!'